


Insignificant Differences

by WeirdLittleStories



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Aliens can give us a new perspective, Bones is more complicated than people give him credit for, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:33:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27233542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeirdLittleStories/pseuds/WeirdLittleStories
Summary: When the crew of theEnterprisemeets sentient trees, it's not obvious to them which member of the landing party is different from the others...
Relationships: Kirk & Spock & McCoy Friendship
Comments: 44
Kudos: 58





	Insignificant Differences

* * *

**Insignificant Differences**  
by Weird Little Stories

Kirk stood at the forefront of the landing party as it materialized on the planet's surface, his own feeling of eagerness evident in each of the others. While he and his crew always enjoyed making first contact with new species, making it with NON-humanoid species was much more exciting. There were plenty of aliens who looked a lot like humans except for minor variations in noses or foreheads, but judging by the government officials that Kirk had seen on the viewscreen before beaming down, the inhabitants of _this_ planet looked like trees. Not even Spock — the longest-serving, and hence most well-traveled, officer on the ship — had ever met a sentient _tree_ before.

The landing party had been given coordinates that put them directly in front of the government minister. Although the sentient trees — the Cusan — _could_ move, they did so far less than humans did, so the landing party came to it, rather than it to the landing party.

The Cusan rustled its branches, a form of body language that Kirk couldn't yet read but hoped was friendly. A section of its bark opened and a very deep voice boomed out. According to the universal translator, it said, "Welcome! I am called called Bauren, First Speaker of the Cusan. We are thrilled to met aliens as unusual as yourselves. What is your species called?"

Kirk smiled and stepped forward. "And we're also thrilled to meet you, Bauren. I'm Captain James T. Kirk, and these are my first officer, Mr. Spock, my chief medical officer, Dr. McCoy, Lieutenants Sulu and Alden, and Ensign Martine. We are actually members of two species. Most of us are human, but one of us"

At this point, Bauren broke in. "TWO new species! That is even more exciting. Please, don't tell me which of you is different from the others; let me look at you and guess."

Bauren looked over the landing party, its gaze lingering longest on Daniel Alden and Angela Martine. Finally it said, "Lieutenant Alden's external covering is brown, whereas the others are either pink-beige or yellow-beige, so I guess that Lieutenant Alden is the one who is not human."

Kirk smiled and shook his head. "That external covering is called 'skin.' I don't know about the Cusan, but human skin comes in many different shades, from a brown so dark as to be nearly black, through all the intermediate shades, to a beige so pale as to be nearly white. Mr. Alden is quite human."

Lieutenant Alden smiled and nodded.

Bauren waved its branches about in what was evidently amusement, for it said, "Oh, this is fun! Such a strange species, so wonderfully different from our own!" It looked them over again, its gaze once again lingering on Angela Martine. "Well then, I guess that Ensign Martine is the one who is not human. Among the Cusan, we are all shaped quite similarly, but you can tell the state of our health from our color. That's why I guessed based on color first, since color is so important among us. But perhaps it it shape that differs in your kind. Ensign Martine has bumps in her upper-middle region that the others do not have, and her lower-middle region is more curved than that of you others."

Once again Kirk smiled and shook his head. "Angela Martine is what we call a _woman,_ whereas the rest of us are men." He opened his mouth to continue his explanation, but Bauren was already speaking again.

Evidently the universal translator was doing a good job translating concepts into the Cusan's language, because Bauren said, "Ah, sexual reproduction! We also reproduce this way, though we do not separate male and female into different individuals. I look forward to hearing what implications this has for your culture and how that differs from mine. But I still have not guessed the one who is not human. I will try one last time, and if that does not work, then I will allow you to tell me." 

Bauren looked at each of them in turn, then said, "Really, the difference between your species must be QUITE small, because you're all nearly identical. I suppose if it is one of your tiny differences, then Dr. McCoy must be the non-human, since his round face things are blue, and the rest of you have brown round face things."

Kirk snuck a glance at McCoy and saw that the doctor wasn't sure if he were affronted at being called non-human or flattered at being thought special. That was good, because confusion would keep him quiet, and the captain didn't need any of Bones' grousing to screw up first contact. Kirk turned back to Bauren and shook his head. "Those 'round face things' are called _eyes;_ they're our visual organs. And just as humans can have several different shades of skin, they can also have different colors of eyes, from brown to green to blue."

Bauren looked them all over. "Then which one is not human?"

Spock stepped forward. "I am not human; I am a Vulcan."

Bauren waved its branches in amusement. "But your covering — _skin,_ I should say — is the same color as Lieutenant Sulu's, and your eyes are the same shape as his. How are the two of you different?"

Spock pointed to the the tips of his ears and said, "My ears are pointed, rather than round," then drew his index fingers along his eyebrows and added, "And my eyebrows are upswept rather than round."

Bauren's branches shook so hard that it lost two leaves; evidently it was doing the equivalent of laughing hard enough to cry. "Such insignificant differences! Are you completely sure that you're separate species?"

Spock inclined his head gravely. "We are certain, because humans and Vulcans evolved on separate planets."

Bauren fluttered a leaf in what was evidently agreement, because it said, "Yes, that does sound definitive. Come then. Rest under my branches and tell me of yourselves, and I will tell you of the Cusan, and together we will be a mighty forest."

Kirk grinned. The Cusan were going to make _excellent_ Federation members.

  
Once the meeting was over, and the landing party had beamed back to the ship, Sulu went to the botany lab to analyze the leaf that Bauren had graciously allowed them to pick, Alden went to update the universal translator with what he'd learned about the Cusan language, and Martine left for Rec Room 6, eager for her dinner. 

Kirk shepherded Spock and McCoy to his quarters, sat down, then offered them both a drink.

Spock declined with his usual polite grace, while McCoy flopped into a chair, seized a glass, and drank half of it in one long swallow. Kirk sipped his own drink and looked at his two friends. "Well, Bones, how did it feel to be taken for a non-human?"

McCoy chuckled. "I don't think I need to be offended by anything a talking TREE might think! Besides, the color blue tends to be rare in botany, so if they'd been more primitive, I probably would have been worshipped as a god."

Spock glanced at the doctor. "Or burned at the stake as a demon."

McCoy laughed. "I guess there would've been that chance, too." He sobered. "But I'm forgetting; that's actually happened to you, hasn't it?" He looked at Spock. "The Yangs on Omega IV thought you were an agent of their devil."

Kirk smiled. "I guess we'll just have to call you a blue-eyed devil from now on!"

"Hey, wait a minute!" McCoy said indignantly. "When we're NOT dealing with talking trees, SPOCK is the devil in the room!"

Spock raised an admonishing brow. "And yet we have learned that Vulcans are so similar to humans as to be competely indistinguishable to a non-humanoid species. Perhaps you should be more cautious about scapegoating one you believe to be different."

"Scapegoating!" McCoy put down his drink, stood up, and approached Spock. He put a gentle hand on Spock's arm. "Spock, I thought it was understood that you and Jim and I were all brothers, and we tease you to show we care."

Spock shook his head, and his eyes smiled at both Kirk and McCoy. "You tease me because although you express negative emotions easily and freely, you express positive emotions with less ease than a Vulcan."

McCoy goggled at Spock for a second, then fell into his chair. He ran a hand through his hair, then looked up at Spock. "That's not who I want to be." He looked at Kirk. "I want us to express the positive emotions more than the negative ones!"

Kirk smiled. "When a VULCAN thinks you're emotionally constipated, you know you have work to do." He looked up at Spock. "But we have a brother to keep us honest."

Spock inclined his head to each of the others, his eyes twinkling with affection and amusement. Really, if you could learn to read a Vulcan, sentient trees were _easy._

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. We often see Spock being singled out as the one who's obviously different from the others. That's fine if the people doing the singling out are humans, but if they're aliens, then how is it obvious that SPOCK is the different one? Humans vary quite a lot, having many different skin colors, noses that are flatter or pointier, lips that are fuller or thinner, eyes with and without epicanthic folds, and so on. WE know that humans don't have pointed ears, but given the variety that humans come in, would that be obvious to ALIENS?
> 
> 2\. On a world where there have never been humans with axes or chainsaws, I figure the only thing sentient trees fear is lightning. Birds perch on their branches and sing for them, and squirrels run along their branches and play, and trees naturally feel that other lifeforms are mostly a source of delight and interest. I felt the need for that mindset as a counterbalance, given what the real world is like right now, and I thought some of you might, too...
> 
> 3\. Lieutenant Alden was the African-American communications officer we saw during "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Luckily, he was replaced by Nichelle Nichols, or we wouldn't have had a woman bridge officer! I used Alden for this story because I didn't want the same person to have both a different skin color from the others AND female characteristics. Using Alden let me separate the two.
> 
> 4\. We saw Angela Martine during both "Balance of Terror" and "Shore Leave." I used her because she has brown eyes, which Janice Rand does not, so Dr. McCoy's would be the only blue eyes in the landing party.
> 
> 5\. Those Yangs who thought Spock was an agent of the devil were seen in "The Omega Glory."
> 
> 6\. _Bauren_ and _Cusan_ are words I made up, so if they exist in another language or as a rock band or something, there's no intentional reference. :-)
> 
> For those who like to know how things are pronounced, _Bauren_ is pronounced like the woman's name _Lauren,_ only with a "b" instead of an "l." _Cusan_ has a hard "c" -- like _cook,_ not like _civilization_ \-- and the "u" has an "oo" sound; the first syllable rhymes with _too._ The "san" part of the name is like _sand_ without the "d"
> 
> If you don't care about the intended pronunciation, that's fine with me; pronounce them however you like!
> 
> 7\. Yes, I know I still owe you the conclusions of both "An Embarrassing Savior" and "Practice Pon Farr," but occasionally I have to write a weird little story. :-)
> 
> 8\. I have a chronic illness that leaves me non-functional most of the time, which means that I am not always able to reply to comments. I do read them all with great attention, though, and I do **cherish** every single one of them, even when my health doesn't permit me to reply. I apologize for being so limited in what I can do.
> 
> 9\. I don't own Star Trek, and I make no money from the stories I write; everything here is just fans playing in the sandbox. Actually, it would probably be more accurate to say that Star Trek owns ME. :-)
> 
> 10\. Thanks for reading! If you liked anything about this story, I'd love to hear what you enjoyed.


End file.
